The Million Dollar High Stakes Online Poker Winners of 2012 - Part 2
Chung Ho (avatar) - Profited $1.2M in 2012
Phil Galfond had another good year - Profited $1.4M in 2012
NLHE Specialist Niklas Heinecker - Profited $1.64M in 2012
Here we continue our rundown of 2012's million dollar online high stakes winners from the tables of PokerStars and Full Tilt with numbers 10 down to 6. If you missed the first part (place 14 down to 11) you can find it here
10. Chung ho - $1,229,812 ($1,788,020 including winnings as SallyWoo at Full Tilt in 2012)
Chung ho is the first player on the list to specialise in the high stakes limit games and plays exclusively at the highest stakes FLO8 tables - usually with tremendous success. This player played a little between January-March last year, having a decent March and by the end of the month was over $200k in profit for the year. For reasons unknown to us this was the last we were to see of Chung ho for several months as he only returned in August.
Perhaps one of the reasons for Chung ho's return was the appearance of Gus "broksi" Hansen at PokerStars. Hansen is known for his love of high stakes FLO8 and the two soon became embroiled in some classic heads up battles, with Chung ho often getting the better of The Great Dane. Between August and November Chung ho racked up over a million dollars at the FLO8 tables - including a second place finish on September's leader board with a $662.5k month.
Despite Hansen being his most common rival, he had his biggest day in October where he won against patpatman and Fake Love888 - you can read about his $428k dayhere. It seems that from the beginning of November Chung ho concentrated his efforts on Full Tilt (where Hansen, as the lead pro would now be plying his trade) as he played only a small number of hands in November and not at all at PokerStars in December. The change of sit obviously proved a good idea as "SallyWoo" (Chung ho's Full Tilt alter ego) won over half a million dollars in the final 8 weeks of the year.
9. longerpig - $1,403,455
Although officially "unknown", several high stakes pro's (including Luke "Fullflush1" Schwartz, Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky and Alex "BiatchPeople" Luneau) have speculated (with Schwartz calling him out at the table) that longerpig in fact an account belonging to Jared "Harrington10" Bleznick (along with Gozoboro)- you can see the forum thread here. If this is indeed the case then Bleznick would be the 3rd biggest winner at PokerStars this year with over $2.3 million in winings. However, I will continue to refer to them as simply "longerpig" for the purposes of this review.
longerpig didn't appear at PokerStars tables until March, and got off to a slow start making a slight loss that month before going on a sustained upswing for five months, in which time they won a little over a million dollars, enjoying a particularly profitable July where they won over $650k - all exclusively at the PLO tables where longerpig preferred to play at the $50/$100 tables rather than the nosebleed stakes. longerpig's big win in July can mainly be attributed to a fantastic $444k day on 25th of the month won during an epic duel at the $50/$100 PLO tables with kaju85 which you can read about here. This match also produced longerpig's biggest pot of the year;
AAxx vs KKxx all in on the flop as the bigger hand holds up to take this $102.8k pot
After a small ($35k) loss in August longerpig continued to make steady progress for the remainder of the year winning each month to end the year a $1.4m winner at PokerStars.
8. Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond - $1,417,998
There's no denying the talent of Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond, one of the biggest winners in online poker history, and once again in 2012 he proved himself against the toughest opposition adding yet another seven figure score to his bankroll at the end of the year. It was a strange start for the year for Galfond who, after the first two weeks was among the biggest winners of the month, bagging over $350k profit. However, during the second half of the month Galfond lost over a million dollars ($800k during the last week of January), donating heavily at the PLO tables to most of the months biggest winners.
Galfond was not about to take such a terrible start to the year put him off his stride however and he came back strongly in February winning over $200k before really crushing in March where he won close to $1.3 million. He won precisely half of this total in one day playing PLO heads up against Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, catching Blom with a fattened bankroll, having himself won a million dollars during the week.
After another winning month in April (c.+$150k) Galfond went on the missing list for most of the summer as he headed out to Vegas - not playing again until August. MrSweets28 came back in some style, accruing $900k in winnings for August, including this $400k day on the 22nd August. This day also saw Galfond take down his biggest online pot of the year;
Isildur1 makes a bold call but must have known he was going to need to get lucky as Galfond had represented AA preflop and despite flopping middle pair Mr Blom couldn't catch up, handing MrSweets28 this $206.1k pot
In a similar vein to bernard-bb August marked the high point for MrSweets28 when he stood at over $1.9 million profit as he suffered losing months in September, October and November (he did not play in December), losing around half a million dollars during the final quarter of the year to end up with a still mighty fine $1.4m win for 2012.
7. bernard-bb - $1,488,484
Finnish player bernard-bb had a storming start to 2012, being one of the biggest winners in both January and February, quickly amassing $1.2 million in winnings at PokerStars high stakes PLO tables. The first part of the year also saw bernard-bb's biggest hand of the year which occurred on 23rd February at the $100/$200 PLO six max tables;
We can only assume refaelamit flopped the same straight as bernard-bb who then went on to hit a runner runner straight - $176.7k pot
Despite a $150k loss in March bernard-bb continued to climb the leader board through the first 2/3 of the year posting winning months thereafter until September. At the end of August bernard-bb hit his highpoint as his winnings totaled $1.8 million, after which he was yet to see another winning month, losing an average of $100k per month until the end of the year. He still ended the year on a more than respectable $1.488 million profit.
6. Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker - $1,640,967
Hot on the heels of Kanu7 is another NLHE specialist Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker who was less than $3k behind his English rival in the 2012 list of online winners. ragen70 started 2012 with a bang and was by far the biggest NLHE winner in January as he took $608k in the first month of the year. Heinecker was nothing if not consistent in 2012 and only had two losing months - and these months only totalled $25k in losses between them.
Had it not been for Kanu7's slightly better December - where both players enjoyed good six figure months - ragen70 would have been the biggest NLHE winner for 2012.
ragen70's biggest pot of the year occurred during some $200/$400 NLHE six max back in April;
ragen70 makes a big value bet with his overpair and snags this $173.6k pot
Continue to Part 3 of the Million Dollar Online Winners in 2012 to see which poker players ended up in 5th to 1st place for the year.